Under the proposed bill, Spanish Civil Law would include the phrase: "Matrimony shall have the same requisites and effects regardless of whether the persons involved are of the same or different sex."

Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar argued that the bill overcomes "the barriers of discrimination, many of them with deep historical or primitive roots, which affect rights and freedoms and, in a specific way, the extension of free choice in the search for happiness, an unwritten basic right".

The vote in parliament was passed by 183 votes, with 136 against and six abstentions.

Members of gay and lesbian groups in the public gallery cheered and clapped when the result was read out.

If the bill is approved by the Senate as expected, it will make Spain the third EU country to authorise gay marriages after Belgium and the Netherlands.

Religious groups, including Roman Catholic bishops, Jews and protestant bodies also expressed their opposition.

Correspondents say the law will worsen relations between the Socialist government and the Roman Catholic Church.

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The Spanish Bishops Conference, which has opposed the bill from its conception, says it goes "against the common good" and that it was "unfair that real marriage should be treated the same as the union of persons of the same sex".